Can ‘Bill and Ted Save’ ‘Infamous Iron Man’?

Wow, it’s been a while since I’ve looked at these comics, huh? So long that I thought I didn’t have notes for one of the issues of Infamous Iron Man in question!

My friend at work is a Doctor Doom nut, and he’s been having me pick up some comics at my LCS for him, like the Infamous Iron Man series. I’ve talked about the other issues of the book in various posts before, but it’s been awhile. Basically, Doom took over as Iron Man after Tony Stark was out of commission after…Civil War eye eye, I guess. The first story arc wasn’t exactly my cup of tea, you may remember. How did the second arc turn out?

“Blow out the candles so I can cut you a piece of your birthday cake!”

Well, kudos for the creative team making it the entire twelve issues of Infamous Iron Man, with Brian Michael Bendis writing, Alex Maleev on the art, Matt Hollingsworth the colorist, letters and production by VC’s Clayton Cowles, edits by Alanna Smith and Tom Brevoort. That consistency is nice to see in this day and age.

Infamous Iron Man eventually got decent. I don’t know that it ever completely got GOOD, but it was a decent conclusion to this part of the plot. Doom is trying to be a good guy as Iron Man, the Thing is deputized by SHIELD to take him out, and it appears that Reed Richards wants Doom dead. The Riri Williams Ironheart character shows up, as does Dr. Strange for the finale, and they’re used decently. There’s a conversation between Ben and Johnny Storm in issue 9 that’s pretty good, about how they’re trying to deal with what’s been going on with out the Richards family. The villain behind things is logical and works within the story (and has a nice monologue to the reader in the last issue). However, other things like the way the cliché of having a flashback of characters interacting in the past and in the present, one says something different than what happened so that the fake character outs themselves by agreeing with the false statement was used was irritating. I don’t know when Doctor Strange became a pop culture referencing douche, but that happens here too. And the battles are resolved so quickly and without any real conflict that they aren’t all that engaging.

The art is decent, although some things, like the Wizard’s man-bun (which makes him look like he’s bowling against The Dude) are stupid, and in 7 Ben looks like he’s goosing an old lady, which is amusing. The action sequences are mostly just blasts of energy and then everything is resolved. There are some nice things like the way the art gets kinda weird when Doom and Strange meditate together in 11, or the expressions on the face of the big bad in the final issue’s fourth wall breaking sequence. And the coloring gives a spooky look to some parts, like when Doom and his mother are in The Tear, the hole where the multiverse used to be, with lots of purplish reds, or when she busts in to get Doom in issue 9.

Overall, Infamous Iron Man is a decent but not great superhero book that doesn’t really resolve the issue of Doom trying to become a better man, but does explore it some.

The cover to issue 8. This cover is a lie! But it looks cool.

Doom also appears briefly in Avengers 8, a book written by Mark Waid and Jeremy Whitley, art by Phil Noto, letters by VC’s Cory Petit, under a neat Alex Ross cover. It’s a follow up story, I guess, to the recent Avengers 1.1-5.1 storyline (apparently collected as Avengers: Four), a tale of the Kooky Quartet, I believe, and Avenger X, who was the main feature of that arc, I guess. She’s found after years buried away, and isn’t too happy. Spider-Man is entirely too stupid in this issue, and it’s one of those stories Marvel has to have where the new characters (in this case, the new Wasp) have to show that they’re smarter than the heroes we’ve been reading about for years, to prove they’re decent. She’s smart and likeable enough, and calls in Doom for emergency assistance, but it does seem like the rest of the characters have to grab the idiot ball a bit for the story to work. However, Noto does what Noto does well, and it’s not a bad issue, even though it’s part 2 of a storyline (my friend already had part 1, so I didn’t get to read that), and it’s a follow up to an arc that I didn’t read either. Entertaining enough.

So now we come to Bill and Ted Save the Universe, of which I’ve now read 4 out of the 5 issues. Written by Brian Joines, art by Bachan, colors by Alex Guimarães, letters by Jim Campbell, edits by Eric Harburn, and covers by Derek Charm.

RAWK!

Confession: I haven’t seen the Bill and Ted movies. Although I have the Bogus Journey soundtrack on cassette. And I’ve read the novelization of that one (it exists! I swear!). But I will be watching the two movies sometime soon. Oh, and I’ve read some of the comics by Evan Dorkin. I know the basic thread of the story.

Anyway, in these issues, Bill and Ted discover that their music brings peace to the universe, but some are concerned that that interferes with the natural evolution of certain cultures. The book opens with a fun chase involving Dracula and Bram Stoker, then the boys are given a surprise party with their families all showing up. Except their moms, who are away. Far away, as we learn, as they have been going around the universe spreading the Wyld Stallyns gospel. From there, the boys face certain trials from the aliens to prove that they should be allowed to spread their music around, and from their families, as the dysfunction of those families comes into conflict. Ted doesn’t want to tour if it takes him away from his family for too long, which conflicts with what Bill wants, and right now, things are at an impasse. Not to mention all the other familial conflicts happening as well. I think we know things will turn out ok in the end (that’s what happens in these stories!), but seeing how it happens is the fun part.

The art is nicely cartoony and expressive, just right for a fun jaunt of this sort, but it conveys the emotional stuff well too.

Overall, Bill and Ted Save the Universe has been an amusing trip and I look forward to the conclusion, which comes out soon.

Rocking out with your mom isn’t very rock’n’roll, is it?

Don’t forget that clicking things sends us scratch to keep the lights on!

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Author: AtomicJunkShopTravis

Travis Pelkie has been trying to convey to others his enthusiasm for pop culture junk for years, as shown in this photo. He's trying to show his bemused grandparents here why the Hulk TV show was so cool to him at around age 3 or less (you do the math to figure out his age). He's written some columns about comics over at Comics Should Be Good in the past, and is now a co-founder of the Atomic Junk Shop. While comics are his main interest, he also enjoys a wide range of culture junk like MST3K, The Venture Bros., sci-fi and mystery novels, music that the kids used to call indie, NPR weekend shows, and entirely too many puzzles in the paper. He probably hasn't seen that movie you're talking about. While he remains as adorable as in this picture, he's now hairy enough to cosplay as Alan Moore. Luckily for you ladies, that means he's single. Also enjoys self-deprecating humor. Contact him at atomicjunkshoptravis@outlook.com or tpelkie@atomicjunkshop.com because he enjoys having long email addresses.

I agree that there’s some Bendis blame, because he actually only writes one character, but that specific Dr. Strange characteristic is certainly aping the movie, where he’s a pop culture (music most specifically) referencing douche’. Though the point of the movie is he goes from Doctor Stephen Strange to Dr. Strange and becomes less douchey, so it makes no sense in this story, so we’re back to Bendis.

I’m getting to the point where I’m thinking Maleev is going from a bit overrated to completely overrated.

And did I read that right…you’ve read the Bill and Ted novelization? Someone REALLY loves reading books if that one got read. You may have been the only person alive to read it. I’m doubt the editors gave it a proof read. Because while the movie is some dumb fun, I can’t hardly imagine that all put to text. Or the author trying to get more “in depth” with the characters. Because a kiddie pool had more depth.

Which makes me wonder who the market for this comic was. Certainly not new readers, who are way too young, and probably just think of Keanu as John Wick. And I certainly understand that so much of culture is going towards us older folks reminiscing, but other than having a good chuckle by stopping flipping channels if Bill and Ted are on or coming up, was anyone clamoring for their further adventures? Interesting fiscal choice.

Which is an overall comic problem that they charge so much that they can get away with selling so few copies of something, but because they sell so few copies of everything they have to charge so much. I think they were better off with fewer titles selling a lot more copies at a lower price than whatever they’re trying to do now.